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Originally Posted by Baldr44
Moreover, there are passages of the New Testament that can be understood only if seen against the background of pre-existence of souls as a generally held belief. For instance, Matthew (16:13-14) records that when Jesus asked his disciples "Whom do men say that I am?" they replied that some people said he was John the Baptist (who had been executed only a few years before the question was asked). Others thought he was Elijah, or Jeremiah, or another of the prophets.
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All of these passages can be explained by showing a belief in resurrection rather than reincarnation. In fact, the ones who thought Jesus was John the Baptist
must have had resurrection in mind because there hadn't yet been time for Jesus to grow to adulthood if he had been the reincarnation of John.
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Later in Matthew (17:13), far from rejecting the concept of rebirth Jesus tells his disciples that John the Baptist was Elijah.
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He couldn't have meant that John was the reincarnation of Elijah because Elijah never died. If you read 2 Kings 2:1-14 you will find that he was taken directly to heaven without undergoing death. Also, when he and Moses appeared to Jesus at the transfiguration the disciples identified him as Elijah, not as John.
You can find out what Jesus meant if you read what the angel said when foretelling the birth of John:
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
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John (9:2-4) reports that the disciples asked Jesus whether a blindman had sinned or his parents that he had been born blind. Jesus replied that it was in order that the works of God may be made manifest in the blind man, that is, that the law of cause and effect might be fulfilled. Or, as St. Paul phrased the thought: we reap what we sow. The blind man could not have sown the seeds of his blindness in his present body, but must have done so in a previous lifetime.
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It is possible that the one who asked Jesus the question might have had reincarnation in mind but Jesus told him that what he believed wasn't true.
Here is an article about some of the problems with reincarnation:
http://eternal-productions.org/PDFS/...%20Exposed.pdf
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